An Oregon Marine in Afghanistan and her drones

View full sizeCpl. Samantha Harrington / USMC Public AffairsUSMC Sgt. Marissa Harris of Klamath Falls was given the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for her work as an intelligence analyst at Forward Operating Base Edinborough in Afghanistan.

This was Sgt. Samantha Harris's third deployment.

From the USMC Public Affairs story:

"Stuart, a native of Klamath Falls, Ore., supported coalition troops on
more than 250 combat missions and was directly responsible for
positively indentifying and providing the location of enemy forces on
dozens of occasions, according to the citation of the award presented to
her.

"The Marine Corps uses unmanned aerial vehicles to provide intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance for coalition forces operating in
Afghanistan. The small, lightweight vehicles used by the Corps are able
to stay in air for several hours to supply Marines and their coalition
partners with aerial information throughout combat missions. Marine
Corps unmanned aerial vehicle intelligence analysts provide real-time
aerial surveillance for troops on the ground using the ScanEagle and the
RQ-7B Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles.
"